The Key to Real Change: Peer Pressure

By Dirt, special correspondent to The Future Earth

According to an article in today's New York Times, plastic shopping bags have virtually disappeared from Ireland. How? In 2002, Ireland instituted a tax on plastic bags, along with a public-awareness campaign. The results were astounding. Virtually overnight, plastic bag use declined 94%—and now the vast majority of Irish carry cloth bags for shopping.

Was it the tax? Was it the information campaign? Those certainly helped; but the Irish believe the biggest motivator was... good old-fashioned peer pressure. It quickly became socially unacceptable to use plastic bags. More than anything else, glares of disapproval prodded many stick-in-the-muds to sheepishly purchase reusable cloth bags and learn to spurn the plastic.

While it's inspiring to see how people can influence one another to change for the better, it's worthwhile to look at what made that possible in Ireland. Their "plas tax" is now approximately 33 cents U.S. That's a substantial amount—but Ireland has no native plastic bag industry, which meant the government faced far less opposition when proposing the tax. Protests did come from Irish retailers; but some have changed their tune after the success of the government's effort (some, such as the Superquinn supermarket chain, now claim to be great supporters of the idea.)

Ireland's stunning achievement clearly rests on two related factors: 1) A determined government agency, promoting an innovative and effective policy (while successfully countering big-business opposition); followed by 2) the power of societal pressure, as the citizens influence one another to make positive changes. Could this model work in the United States, one of the world's largest plastics consumers? It's not difficult to imagine Americans responding to peer pressure (for example, advertising has exploited Americans' fear of negative public image for many decades.) What seems far more difficult is creating the catalyst for such social change. It has been quite some time since the United States government acted as a leader in that regard.